Monday, December 10, 2012

dealing with the demons

Papo and Yo is and independent is a fantasy adventure game
that tells a metaphorical story about the relationship between the games
creator and writer, Vander Cabellero, and his alcoholic father as he was
growing up. The game is not meant to be an autobiography but rather the
interactions that happen between the Cabellero and his father as he remembers
them. The young protagonist in the game named Quico, is the video game
counterpart of Cabellero’s childhood self. As Quico roams the maze of streets
in a Brazillian favela, he comes across a giant rhino horned beast named only
Monster, that accompanies him on his adventure, the video game counterpart of
the father. Although the monster is brutish and powerful he is not represented
as villainous but rather pitiful at times. Cabellero speaking on behalf of the
game says that he wanted this to not be a sob story but rather one about love
that showed multiple aspects of the relationship for better or for worse.
Monster is for the most part friendly and occasionally fatherly but when he
ingests frogs, a habit he cannot control, he gets angry and is prone to hurt
Quico. Quico knowing that it is not entirely the monsters fault that he is this
way sets out to find a cure for Monster in hopes that he can help him stop
eating frogs and stop getting out of control. The gameplay is all about
restructuring the world via gears drawn on walls and the story is driven by
pushing events into motion and seeing how they will play out between the pair.
It is highly innovative and arguably a valid sentiment to consider when advocating
that video games can be considered as mediums of higher art as devices that can
be used to express the world through a symbolic interactive story.